


No Space of Regret Can Make Amends

by Trivena_Butterfly



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, Episode: 2010 Xmas A Christmas Carol, Gen, Missing Scene, More optimistic than it looks, Second Chances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28285122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trivena_Butterfly/pseuds/Trivena_Butterfly
Summary: "Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure?""I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough.""Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough."
Kudos: 2





	No Space of Regret Can Make Amends

The house was silent; even the sounds from outside were muffled by the heavy snow. But the household was not asleep.

The house’s sole inhabitant sat opposite the cold hearth, sunken deeply in gloom and memory. Despite his determination, he was just like his father - everybody said so, and just look at what had happened last Christmas: it was exactly what old Eliot Sardick would have done, and Kazran had so desperately wanted to grow up to be different…

And then soot began to fall into the fireplace.

Kazran started as an impossibly familiar figure stood up, brushing soot from his tweed jacket. Then he turned around, and this time he wasn’t smiling.

“Doctor?” Kazran asked, and received a curt nod and another cloud of soot in reply. “I never expected you to come back, after-”

“Over four thousand people died on that ship. Four thousand people who had their whole lives ahead of them, and who knows how many more when their entire district was flattened. On Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, Kazran Sardick.” The Doctor’s voice was bitter as he nearly spat the traditional greeting.

Kazran looked up at him, wearily. “Is that why you’re here, Doctor? To remind me of my crimes? You’re wasting your time,” he said, the ghost of painful irony in his eyes. “I’m reminded every day, every time a family begs me for a loan, because there’s nobody left to earn the money and nothing left to sell. Every time I look at somebody who refuses to look me in the eye, because they know what I did and see me for what I really am. Well, I see it too, now!” His voice trembled as it rose. “Kazran Sardick, the old miser who wouldn’t give his elderly mother a horse-blanket if she was dying in the snow in front of him!”

“I didn’t come to punish you, Kazran,” the Doctor said. “You can still make it right: the ship doesn’t have to crash. You just have to tell me you want to change your past.”

Kazran started at him, incredulous, as hope began to dawn.

“Kazran,” the Doctor said gently, and this time he did smile. “I’m giving you a second chance.”

❄ ❄ ❄

_ "They are not torn down," cried Scrooge, folding one of his bed-curtains in his arms, "they are not torn down, rings and all. They are here—I am here—the shadows of the things that would have been, may be dispelled. They will be. I know they will!" _

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of the Doctor deliberately choosing to interfere with somebody's timeline, for the express purpose of changing who they are as a person and against their will, has never sat well with me. Even by the Doctor's normal standards of meddling, it seems all kinds of wrong.
> 
> I wrote this some time before mid-2014; it occurred to me much later that it makes a nice parallel with the Trickster, who can only operate through agents who have agreed to have their past changed in a way that, while benefiting themselves, also somehow furthers the Trickster's agenda.
> 
> And one last note: in the episode, Kazran was visited three times, by the Doctor, Amy, and Kazran himself, however in the book that inspired it, Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by _four_ ghosts; the three Ghosts of Christmas were preceded by that of Jacob Marley, whose visit made Scrooge willing to listen to the Ghosts in the first place. I didn't write this with that in mind, but it fits so nicely that I can't complain.


End file.
